God's Voice

There are FOUR parts to that saying that fall upon us, and only one that falls upon God. It is up to God to do the talking, which I am convinced He has never stopped doing. It is up to us to do the Hearing, Recognizing, Understanding and Responding.

I was not churched to Hear or listen for God's voice, but to listen to the sermon (actually, the Mass). I was told God stopped talking because the Bible was with us. I was taught that by people that weren't listening for His Voice at all, because the Written Word had replaced the Spoken Word. That was not true, and it is not true. I do not hear Him because I am better than anyone else, I hear Him because I listen. Besides, how can you have a personal relationship with anyone if you don't talk back and forth?

Ray Boltz has a great song, entitled "When He Calls". Read what Ray says!

To Recognize someone's voice, you need to hear it and hear it often. My wife has four sisters, and when we first married I could not tell them apart over the telephone. But, over the years, I changed from saying, "One of your sisters in on the phone, Honey!" to believing I could identify them. I was wrong at times, but have now gotten to the point that if all one of them says is, "Hi, is Judy home?", I can tell her which one it is. That's because of repetition and listening. Wouldn't it be great if I did the same thing for God's Voice, so that I can tell it is God talking? People ask me often "How do you know it's God talking, and not Satan?" My answer is practice. Keep working on the relationship and it will work out. Besides, don't forget, God will help you!

To Understand a speaker today, we must do more than learn their language. If you talk to me in Chinese, or any of the other hundreds of languages I do not understand, we shall not communicate well at all. I must learn your language to understand you. Not just the grammar and vocabulary, but the culture, the sayings and quips, and more. The more I understand where you are coming from, the better I can understand the meanings of the words you use. The same for Understanding God. Read His letters to you, learn about the people known as "The Children of God" and the cultural setting in which He spoke to them. It is very easy to go astray if you don't use the written word as a guide to understanding the spoken word. Too easy. There are two common problems here: Some people have "book knowledge" of a language, but they are unable to communicate in it. Others, try to have their relationship be one-dimensional: either reading only, which is not personal, or talking only, which is not logical. You will benefit from using both to communicate in this most-important relationship.